The Cleansing of the Temple is a call to repentance, and a call to come seek joy in the presence of God through prayer. One of my favorite Facebook posts I’ve seen says, “If anyone ever asks you ‘what would Jesus do?’ remind Him that flipping over tables and chasing people with a whip is within the realm of possibilities.” It’s not entirely clear whether Jesus was using the whip to drive out the people or the animals – and some people want to argue about it. But doing so misses the point. The temple cleansing is less about the cleansing and more about the reason it was being cleansed. Jesus is rightly consumed with a zeal for His Father’s house; a zeal too often lacking in ourselves. It is a brief text, but please stand with me and read Luke 19:45-48. Luke doesn’t tell us when the temple cleansing happens, but Mark 11:11-12,15 shows that it was Monday of Jesus’ final week. And John’s gospel (John 2:13-17) reveals that Jesus actually cleansed the temple twice. One apparently at the beginning of his earthly ministry, and the second time here at the end. That ought to be enough to get anybody’s attention; not only the first century Jews but […]